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Month: June 2014

Today is my fifth day in Italy :). It is amazing here and Tuscany is just as I imagined! I will have pictures up, hopefully, the beginning of next week.

I am staying in an elementary school in Badia Pozzeveri just outside of the town Altopascio. We do not have air but it actually isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I am staying in the gym which is divided into little areas of 5 people by wooden dividers. We are sleeping on cots but they are actually very comfortable. Dinner is served by a local restaurant and is usually a pasta or rice dish first. Then we are served a meat dish second and fruit is put out as dessert.

On to the good part-digging. I am in area 4000, although we have actually combined with 5000, and it was expanded this year. A lot of our work the first two days was pick-axing at the left over asphalt and rock. My area supervisor is Alessandro and he is definitely my favorite so far out of the Italian instructors. He speaks English very well and is more than willing to explain and answer any question that we have. On the first day, we found fragments of pottery and 3 nails. There are many kinds of pottery and I have two favorites. The pottery from Florence, which is easy to spot because of the designs on the surface as it is one of the few that have colorful designs. Another of my favorite is the pottery from Genoa, Italy. It has a white base and began in the 18th century up until the 19th century. The pottery all has green stain however the older pottery is spotted with green dots that are spread far apart. The newer pottery is more of a green stain all over the surface instead of spotted. Yesterday we found much of the same artifacts with the addition of two bone fragments. I hope that I get to excavate a burial J. Although, I think I will be able to because we have the cloister in our section and the monks were buried on either side of the cloister walkway. Today while troweling we found a pit filled with clay. It was some kind of outside workshop area associated with the newest area of the church.

The food is very good! Although unlike America, they have a light breakfast and lunch and two courses for dinner. I have a feeling based on the first few days that this will be hard to adjust to because I am starving by every meal. Anyways, the pasta is fresh as well as the pasta sauce. I have tried the gelato across the street in Café New York and it is amazing! Much better than anything you would get in America.

On Monday, I walked into Altopascio and it was such a cute little town! The buildings are very colorful and there is a park with beautiful fountains. Like I said before, I will try to put pictures up in about a week.

As some of you may know, I am going to Italy for 6 weeks to participate in an archaeological field school! The field school will be in Badia Pozzeveri near Lucca, Italy and we will be digging at a monastery that was founded in the 11th century. This summer, the school will continue to explore the 1855 cholera cemetery and the medieval cemetery and monastery ruins. If you want to learn more about the Field School Pozzeveri you can click here http://www.fieldschoolpozzeveri.org/index.html or here http://spark.sciencemag.org/the-thousand-year-graveyard.

When I was deciding whether or not I would apply, my mom found an essay I had written 4 years ago talking about how my dream was to go to a field school in Italy. Was it fate? Maybe but sometimes life just has a crazy way of working out.

Now on to the reason why I started this lovely little blog…. I wanted a way that I could write about my experiences but also share with my friends and family who might be curious as to what I was doing (*ahem* mom). At the same time I didn’t want it just to be about this field school or this summer. I wanted to be able to blog about my garden or what I cook or historical things or future traveling that I may do. Oh and maybe about this place named THE Ohio State University where I happen to spend some time at now and then.

I look forward to sharing my experiences with you all, not only this summer but hopefully for a long time to come 🙂